The 11-member team headed by Navid Qureshi, senior urban transport specialist, will arrive on

July 3.

"We wanted to get a commitment from the government on improving the city's traffic management, but we failed (to get that). To be very honest, we are not happy with the project," said a WB high official who did not want to be named.

The DUTP is scheduled to be completed by June 30 but five of its big components remain unfinished.

"We wanted to make some major city streets rickshaw-free from February 25 this year, but this did not happen because of political pressure," the WB official said.

The team will start its work on June 4 and continue for next ten days.

"The team will also review the status of key actions identified during the earlier visit of a World Bank mission on January 4," the WB official added.

The WB team will prepare an aide-memoir, documenting the findings and recommendations to be discussed with the officials of the implementing agencies. "We have created so much chaos in last 30 years that it has become quite impossible to address all the problems in one project. Let us review the project and then we will reach a decision," said Mohi Uz Zaman Quazi, senior transport engineer of the World Bank and a member of the mission.

Sources at the DUTP said 80 percent work of the project is already done. "We do not know whether the World Bank is unhappy with this progress. It has asked us to complete the remaining work and extended project duration till December," said Ashraful Islam, project director of the DUTP.

Five components of the project that would not finish by the deadline are the construction of the Mohakhali flyover, installation of electronic traffic signals at 59 points, renovation of the three inter-district bus terminals, construction of nine foot-bridges and completion of a strategic transport planning (STP) study.

The STP, expected to solve traffic congestion, was taken to design the city's traffic and transport system with a 20-year perspective. The plan will outline measures to ensure sustainable traffic flow and smooth public transportation in the capital.

An American company, Louias Perger, in cooperation with the local Bangladesh Consultant Limited is conducting the extensive study funded by the WB at a cost of Tk 10 crore.

The five-year DUTP was taken in 1999 under the Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB) to ease traffic congestion in the capital. The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and the Roads and Highways (R&H) Department are the implementing agencies.

As the DUTP could not be completed on time, the WB extended the deadline for the construction of the Mohakhali flyover, installation of traffic signals and renovation of bus terminals to December 31. The deadline for the STP has also been extended to March 31 next year.

"Ninety five percent work of the Mohakhali flyover is done. It has been delayed because the Chinese construction company wanted to supply a Chinese shock absorption system called Seismic Transmission Unit (STU) to withstand earthquake. But we wanted an American system," said Ashraful Islam.

The DUTP officials now hope that the first flyover in the city will be open to traffic in the first week of October.

Sources at the WB also accused the DCC of failing to start the Road Transport Maintenance Fund (RTMF) in time to ease traffic congestion in the capital.

The cost of the whole project initially was Tk 1,300 crore but after a mid-term review in 2002, the Bank rolled back nearly Tk 600 crore because of slow pace of implementation by the DCC. The lending agency also warned the authorities of fund withdrawal unless the government handed over implementation of a few components to a competent organisation.

The government, after consultation with the communications ministry, involved the Roads and Highways Department in the implementation process.

The revised project cost is estimated at Tk 700 crore. Of it, the World Bank's contribution is Tk 608 crore in loans while the government's contribution is Tk 219 crore. Sources at the DUTP said around Tk 486 crore of the total expenditure had already been spent.

"The money still unused will be needed to pay bills to the contractors," a DUTP official added.